Los Angeles daily herald., 1887-10-08
THE SAN JOAQUIN RANCHO.
The Question ms to Who Was tho


The question as to who was thepul
chaser OF the San Joaquin rancho O
the 10th OF July last cameup in Judg
Hutton's court yesterday. The cas-
in which this question is involved i
that of A. f. Davis VS.. w. d. Smitl
ct al, and the place where the sal
was alleged to have been made is tn
office of Messrs Bicknell & White
From the testimony given yesterda,
it appears that the Trustees of thu
property had been for some time priol
to July 18th trying to effect the sale o
the property to several different par
ties, but no satisfactory conclusion was
reached. and it was finally decided not
to sell it private auction, but to call
together those with whom negotiations
had been pending and let them bid
for it in the office of Messrs.
Bick nell & White. Accordingly
notices were sent out and on the 10th
OF July the trustees, with the excep-
ton of two, went to the
office with the prospective pur-
chasers and drew up an agreement
as to the manner in which The sale
was to be conducted. After this agree
ment had been made, Mr.. Davis pro-
posed that the bidding be restricted to
one half an hour. There was no OBJ
lection to this proposal and Judge
Bieknell was appointed time-keeper.
He borrowed Hon. j. de Barth Shorb's
watch which was better than his own
and called time. 1t had been an
nounced prior to this time that no bid
lower than 81 500, 900 would be enter
tatned, and when time was called j.
de Borth Shorb, A. E. Davis and w.
D. Smith appeared to be the only bid
ders in the field. 1t was understood
that the two former gentlemen repre-
sented syndicate headed by Senator
Fair and that the Mr.. Smith repre-
sented the Atchison, Topeka
& Santa Fe Company. J. de Barth
Shorb was the first bidder,
Offering $l,3O0,0O0. Between this
bid and that Of Mr.. Smith of
81 ,305, 900 five minutes elapsed and
between the second and third bids
eight minutes passed. Twenty-Five
minutes Of the half hour passed very
quietly and then Judge Bicknell re-
marked that there was but five min
utes to spare and he should not call
them out. Bidding became very
spirited and Mr.. Davis standing with
his watch in hand bid 81 1875 900 just
as the last minute Of the half hour ex-
pired. Mr.. Smith bid 81 $3.50 900 and
Mr.. Davis finished with a bid of
1885, 900. This all occurred very
rapidly and during the time occupied
by the three last bids Judge Bicknell
called t''time,', The by-standers could
not determine to which bid he had
called time, but he testified that
he called it, to the. bid of
81 $3.50, 600, and, imagining it was the
bid of Mr.. Davis, said, "you have it,"
to him. Afterward he had been told
that Mr.. Smith had made the bid OF
81 $50 900, and Judge Bicknell said
that if that was so then the property
was his. There was a difference OF
opinion in regard to the one to whom
the property should go in the minds
of the Trustees, and they refused to
accept the checks of either which were
rendered, and afterward taken in
charge by Mr.. White. The majority
Of the Trustees testified that they were
ready to sign a deed in favor OF
either one of the gentlemen, il it
could be decided as to which
that one should be. Mrs. Irvine
testified that she thought the
should 90 to theahighest bid
der, and not being present at the sale
did not agree to the 80 minute clause.
Mr.. E. B. Mastck stated that there
was a question in his mind as to
whether the 80 minute clause was
proper since he thought it would per-
haps have been to the best interests
of the heirs that the property should
have been sold to the highest bidder.
The case was argued at length by the
attorneys, after which the compli-
Gated questions involved were sub
mitted to Judge Hutton for future de-
ciciOp